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Amphibia    Caudata    Plethodontidae  
Imitator Salamander
Desmognathus imitator Dunn, 1927
DEZ-moh-NAY-thus — IM-ih-tay-tor
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
Amphibian Species of the World
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 4,395 Total; 3,799 Museum; 596 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.04.08.20.40.10)
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: North Carolina Tennessee

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its mimicry of co-occurring species.
Desmognathus — Greek desmos = “ligament” + gnathos = “jaw”; Refers to the jaw muscle and ligament structure characteristic of the genus.
imitator — Latin imitator = “imitator,” “mimic”; Refers to its phenotypic resemblance to other Desmognathus species, possibly a form of Batesian mimicry.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1927 Dunn, Emmert R. A new mountain race of Desmognathus. Copeia 164:84–86
1985 Tilley, Stephen G. Desmognathus imitator.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (359):1-2
1993 Arnold, Steven J., Nancy L. Reagan, and Paul A. Verrell. Reproductive isolation and speciation in plethodontid salamanders. Herpetologica 49(2):216-228
1996 Titus, Tom A. and Allan Larson. Molecular phylogenetics of Desmognathine salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae): A reevaluation of evolution in ecology, life history, and morphology. Systematic Biology 45(4):451-472
2008 Tilley, Stephen G., Renee L. Eriksen, and Laura A. Katz. Systematics of dusky salamanders, Desmognathus (Caudata: Plethodontidae), in the mountain and Piedmont regions of Virginia and North Carolina, USA. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 152:115-130
2010 Kozak, Kenneth H. and John J. Wiens. Accelerated rates of climatic-niche evolution underlie rapid species diversification. Ecology Letter 13:1378-1389

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